Billionaire Leon Cooperman’s Latest Top Stock Picks

Cooperman’s top pick as of each of the past three filing periods was Allergan PLC (NYSE:AGN), but the stock has been usurped by two new upstarts as of October 16, sliding to third. It now constitutes the same 3.0% exposure within Cooperman’s portfolio as AerCap does, down from 4.46%. As shares were down by even less than AerCap’s during the July 1-to-October 15 period, at about 9.5%, we can be certain that the position was trimmed by a greater amount than AerCap’s was. Allergan PLC (NYSE:AGN)’s third quarter performance did little to help 151 of the funds tracked by us with long positions in the stock, which ranked it as their top stock pick as of June 30.

First Data Corp (NYSE:FDC) is not a new investment for Cooperman, who held a large stake in the payment processing company when it was private, as disclosed in previous investor letters. The company has finally gone public again after eight years however, and in the biggest IPO of the year no less, allowing other investors to get in on the action. Coincidentally, it had its IPO on October 16, the same date that Cooperman’s holdings were calculated as of. At that time, Cooperman reported that the position amassed 3.8% of his portfolio. In a Form 3 filing dated October 15, it was shown that Cooperman held direct and indirect ownership over 18.58 million shares, worth over $297.28 million at the shares’ IPO price of $16.00. Cooperman’s Allergan position was worth $279.90 million on June 30, as we can the First Data position is worth more than the Allergan position was. A subsequent Form 4 filing showed that Cooperman discarded about 1.50 million shares of First Data between October 15 and 21.

Cooperman is not the only billionaire that likes First Data Corp (NYSE:FDC); Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment disclosed a 9.56 million-share position in First Data mere days after its IPO. Griffin and Cooperman alone hold about 16.6% of the company’s outstanding shares. First Data Corp is down by about 1.5% since its IPO after taking a big dip on Tuesday following its first earnings release since it went public again. While results are improving, First Data is currently saddled with a heavy debt load which will likely prevent it from being profitable for some time.

Lastly is Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), formerly known as Google, which Omega’s letter revealed occupies a 4.4% chunk of its equity portfolio. That’s a big step up from the 1.83% it held on June 30, which was a new position added during the second quarter and ranked it 25th in Omega’s portfolio. Given the estimate of the First Data position’s value, we can further estimate that Cooperman’s Alphabet position is worth about $344.22 million as of October 31, nearly three-times its $115.38 million value on June 30. Factoring in that shares of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) gained over 28% between July 1 and October 15, we calculate that Cooperman has hiked his stake in Alphabet’s class A shares by over 132% in that time. Alphabet is also the top tech stock pick of John Horseman, who has 4.3% of his fund Horseman Capital’s equity portfolio devoted to the stock as of September 30.

Disclosure: None